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dsr_

"Optimizing for 6 hours of sleep"

"every day, getting out of bed is one of the hardest things I do"

"Every night, when I crawl into bed, I’m exhausted by all I’ve done that day."

Your body may be telling you that you need seven hours of sleep. Or eight.

How would your life change if you went to sleep an hour earlier, but you woke up feeling good?

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I've actually experimented a fair amount with my sleeping patterns. For the most part, I find that when I wake up in the morning, I feel tired no matter what (up until around ~10 hours of sleep). What I've also found, however, is that this tiredness usually doesn't translate to how I feel for the rest of the day — I feel good all day no matter whether I get 6 or 8 hours.

I felt the same way until I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, even though I don't have any of the usual symptoms such as snoring, obesity, etc.

What was the solution and before vs after difference?

The first night of using a CPAP machine, I woke up in about 4 hours and felt like Superman. I am not exaggerating. I suspect I gained 20 or so IQ points.

After about a month, I merely felt normal, averaging about 7 hours of sleep a night.

How was the diagnosis made? Did you have to sleep in a clinic, or at home wearing some analyzer machine?

For diagnosis you need to go to a hospital that does sleep studies. They will hook you up with a sleep apnea machine and sensors and they will monitor your sleep overnight.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea at around 20, which is rare for a young, healthy person. In my case I think it's just genetic because my dad has it. But I figured out something was wrong because I would sleep 10-12 hours and still wake up feeling exhausted. I wore the CPAP machine for a few years and that helped, but now I don't think I need it anymore. I sleep about 7 hours without it and feel fine.

After I got married, and my wife observed my sleep apnea, I did a sleep study. My apnea was infrequent/mild enough that the doctor considered CPAP unnecessarily invasive/expensive.

She told me to take a sock, put a tennis ball in it, safety pin it to the back of a t-shirt, and sleep in that.

Does that just stop you from moving onto your back while you sleep or is there some other goal?

I'm picking that it cushions the blow when his wife kicks him. On a related note, I had a friend who resorted to using duct tape over his partners mouth. Other than being rather brutal and terrifying to see in half light it worked wonders I'm told - better than the prescription tongue depressor thing.

Just stops me from moving onto my back while I sleep.

In the US, diagnosis is made in a one-night sleep clinic with an EKG and an adjustable CPAP. If you do this, make sure to tell the technician that if you register apneation, you would like a CPAP titration calibration done immediately. This saves you (a) another bad night's sleep in the clinic and (b) insurance hassles.

Then you go back to your doctor, discuss your need for a CPAP or APAP machine right now, and possible longer-term treatments.

Depending on insurance specifics, it may be much cheaper to buy a CPAP from an online source than via a full-service insurance-covered medical equipment company. Saving 50-75% is not unusual.

I had a sleep study done. Initially, it was done as response to high concentration of hemoglobin and low testosterone. I had been really tired for so long I didn't even realize how bad it was until I had my first night of sleep using a CPAP. The only way I could cope would be to drink caffeine continuously at work just to be able to focus, even sitting while at work was too much, I just wanted to lay down.

It depends. For many cases, an at-home analyzer will be sufficient.

But a lot of times you'll get scheduled for a clinic anyway...

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea during college, while I was my fittest. Running every day, lifting weights, etc. I felt great, besides the fact that I couldn't get myself out of bed.

I still haven't started using a CPAP machine, as I have developed other coping methods (sleeping on one side helps dramatically). I have considered doing another sleep study though, to get some more information and start with a CPAP machine for backup.

I suggest you might want to study up the long term detrimental effects of sleep apnea. I had no idea.

Stop drinking coffee. About 7 years ago I cut out all caffeine and I've found myself being less tired and more alert in the morning. Granted there are days where I don't want to drag myself out of bed mainly when I know I need sleep, but I no longer feel like a zombie until coffee in the mornings.

I actually only drink ~2 cups of coffee a week (one of which I'm just finishing right now at Awaken :).

If I had access to free coffee every morning I would grab 2 cups every morning. :-)

I do get what you're doing here. By making an external commitment to people, you simultaneously get up on time to meet your commitment, feel better about meeting it, and get a little exercise. And $35 a week can pay for a round trip ticket to Hawaii at the end of the year.

Maybe the quality of your sleep is the issue?

EDIT: OK, a lot of people talking about that below.

when i sleep more i actually get up feeling more tired. in fact it feels as if my mind was wrestling all the while and has been active for quite some time.

I've been trying for ages to sort out a good sleeping pattern that'll have me up and running in the morning. Weirdly enough, the best one I got was:

- wake up after ~6.5 hrs of sleep, use the bathroom, grab something quick to eat and drink a pint of water

- go to sleep again and wake up after ~7.5 hours

- rejoice

It's a hard one to do, and sometimes I can't fall back asleep after the first waking up, but when it works I feel pretty amazing.

Don't ask how I discovered this, I'm not sure myself.

To clarify, do you sleep for another 7.5 hours after the wakeup, or just one hour to bring the 6.5 to 7.5?

Oops - one extra hour. A 14-hour-long daily sleep does sound appealing in a way, though.

Do you have a sunrise simulation alarm clock? Buying a Lumie was probably the best thing I've done to make myself feel awake. Also, put an alarm clock on the opposite side of the room and leave a piece of fruit by the bed to eat in the mornings. It works wonders.

I actually haven't, I should look into that.

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